Let’s not be mean spirited here, you can’t put up Trudeau as an example when the whole Canadian political structure in every party is rife with examples of economic efficiency/moral loss.
Spot on as usual Aaron.
I, many moons ago dealing with a simple issue in my office’s Nortel phone system surmised concerted efforts at managing that example of incompetence, like what you just described, as premeditated stupidity. (yes you can borrow it as my website isn’t up yet) These days, maybe because I use it so much, my most frequent Aaronest rants involves technology.
Failings in say an org’s website’s ability to do what it is supposed be easy, consumer friendly, like search properly for a product, failings in this simple stuff especially gets me going.
However, I don’t blame the coders as much as the entity’s marketing department as they are supposed to be ultimately responsible, aka signing off, for the outward facing interface of their entity with their marketplace. Depending on the size of the organization I will state either a few $100K in eyes on the situation signed off on the stupid , or in the case of Home Depot….a billion?
Fundamentally, the reason this can all happen is all involved don’t loose anything off their paychecks when they do stupid. Ever diminishing accountability. And especially in today’s woke, safe space culture telling some halfwit that he/she/it was in error will only be met with immature feelings of hurt and not introspection and an effort to do better.
As Aaron has wisely now for so long prognosticated….and been sooooo right……..enjoy the decline
I’ve dealt with Northern Telecom/Nortel a number of times. Pre-meditated stupidity described a lot of what I encountered. The company had the attitude that it could do no wrong and became smitten with what it believed was its own invincibility.
You better enjoy your paper straws.
While you still can.
Before all straws are outlawed. And paper cups. Before the contents of those cups are sugar-taxed into the stratosphere. Before fast-food restaurants are banned. Before meat consumption becomes illegal.
Because climate/COVID/cholesterol/colonialism.
And the U of A wonders why it’s been many years since I donated money to it…..
Aaron got it wrong. It was most likely the supplier not changing their moulds when they should. They save a few bucks on costs and labour and pass the losses due to poor quality onto their customers.
Sorry, this is not a trend. It is not getting worse.
This is a permanent condition. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford used to scream about this in the papers. “The apparent inability of the common man to take hold and pull!” was the phrase I recall.
No, people are not stupider. They’ve always been like this. What else has driven the manufacturers of the world to eliminate human error from manufacturing? Why do we strive for repeatable machine-made units and standardized parts? Because craftsmanship is a zen pursuit. Not many men can do it.
It’s just that lately the alternatives to the stupid company with the bad packaging have been drying up. Good companies go under, bad companies run by idiots who have good social and government connections stay afloat.
It’s not stupidity. It’s corruption.
People may not be dumber, but they certainly have less experience. We used to make everything in my town: tires, appliances, electronics, shirts, shoes, skates, lawnmowers and snowblowers and garden tractors, furniture, castings, car parts. All of these places would hire students for the summer, and young people all year round. Now, they are all gone. You can’t even get a farm job without a heavy equipment licence – I was driving tractors for the neighbours when I was twelve. How are kids supposed to learn how to do and make things?
+++Ron
Multiply that by hundreds of cities. The Philadelphia area used to make RCA and Philco radios, Baldwin locomotives, Brill trolley cars, ships by both the Navy and private yards, heavy industrial parts like the gears that operated the original Panama Canal locks and many others. Even today the remnants of Philadelphia’s creations live on around the world. Offshoots of Philco live on in Brazil and Italy. Most railroad museums have a Baldwin steam engine on display. The memories remain but the jobs are gone.
My money says it’s the distributor. The store has nothing to say about it. I know. I’ve tried to get items in stores that I want, and department managers have tried – but if the distributor says “no,” for whatever reason, it ain’t gonna happen.
Also – there were idiots in the supply chain in WWII (the e.g., he uses as ‘knowing what their doing’). There was an incident where the entire drinkable water supply was contaminated with gasoline, and that’s all the soldiers had to drink for the operation. Lots more. Where does he think the SNAFU acronym comes from?
So, no, his thesis isn’t correct, people are people, and aren’t any stupider. It’s the crucible that shapes their characters that’s no longer functional. There’s still plenty of potential. It’s just being squandered more now, perhaps partly because those who haven’t one have become in charge. And that kind of problem doesn’t fix itself.
…and what RonG said.
…and also what The Phantom said
…and probably others whose comments I haven’t read yet.
Phantom is just shilling for capital against labour.
This guy could have made his point in less than 1 minute instead of 13.
I don’t disagree with him, but the chances I’ll subscribe to his content are zero.
I would say it’s more likely they spent MORE on ‘organic free-range recyclable gluten-free’ paper cups, than styrofoam bowls that work.
Describes Trudeau pretty good!
Let’s not be mean spirited here, you can’t put up Trudeau as an example when the whole Canadian political structure in every party is rife with examples of economic efficiency/moral loss.
Spot on as usual Aaron.
I, many moons ago dealing with a simple issue in my office’s Nortel phone system surmised concerted efforts at managing that example of incompetence, like what you just described, as premeditated stupidity. (yes you can borrow it as my website isn’t up yet) These days, maybe because I use it so much, my most frequent Aaronest rants involves technology.
Failings in say an org’s website’s ability to do what it is supposed be easy, consumer friendly, like search properly for a product, failings in this simple stuff especially gets me going.
However, I don’t blame the coders as much as the entity’s marketing department as they are supposed to be ultimately responsible, aka signing off, for the outward facing interface of their entity with their marketplace. Depending on the size of the organization I will state either a few $100K in eyes on the situation signed off on the stupid , or in the case of Home Depot….a billion?
Fundamentally, the reason this can all happen is all involved don’t loose anything off their paychecks when they do stupid. Ever diminishing accountability. And especially in today’s woke, safe space culture telling some halfwit that he/she/it was in error will only be met with immature feelings of hurt and not introspection and an effort to do better.
As Aaron has wisely now for so long prognosticated….and been sooooo right……..enjoy the decline
I’ve dealt with Northern Telecom/Nortel a number of times. Pre-meditated stupidity described a lot of what I encountered. The company had the attitude that it could do no wrong and became smitten with what it believed was its own invincibility.
You better enjoy your paper straws.
While you still can.
Before all straws are outlawed. And paper cups. Before the contents of those cups are sugar-taxed into the stratosphere. Before fast-food restaurants are banned. Before meat consumption becomes illegal.
Because climate/COVID/cholesterol/colonialism.
https://www.ualberta.ca/public-health/news/2018/august/why-banning-drivethroughs-could-make-communities-healthier.html
And the U of A wonders why it’s been many years since I donated money to it…..
Aaron got it wrong. It was most likely the supplier not changing their moulds when they should. They save a few bucks on costs and labour and pass the losses due to poor quality onto their customers.
Sorry, this is not a trend. It is not getting worse.
This is a permanent condition. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford used to scream about this in the papers. “The apparent inability of the common man to take hold and pull!” was the phrase I recall.
No, people are not stupider. They’ve always been like this. What else has driven the manufacturers of the world to eliminate human error from manufacturing? Why do we strive for repeatable machine-made units and standardized parts? Because craftsmanship is a zen pursuit. Not many men can do it.
It’s just that lately the alternatives to the stupid company with the bad packaging have been drying up. Good companies go under, bad companies run by idiots who have good social and government connections stay afloat.
It’s not stupidity. It’s corruption.
People may not be dumber, but they certainly have less experience. We used to make everything in my town: tires, appliances, electronics, shirts, shoes, skates, lawnmowers and snowblowers and garden tractors, furniture, castings, car parts. All of these places would hire students for the summer, and young people all year round. Now, they are all gone. You can’t even get a farm job without a heavy equipment licence – I was driving tractors for the neighbours when I was twelve. How are kids supposed to learn how to do and make things?
+++Ron
Multiply that by hundreds of cities. The Philadelphia area used to make RCA and Philco radios, Baldwin locomotives, Brill trolley cars, ships by both the Navy and private yards, heavy industrial parts like the gears that operated the original Panama Canal locks and many others. Even today the remnants of Philadelphia’s creations live on around the world. Offshoots of Philco live on in Brazil and Italy. Most railroad museums have a Baldwin steam engine on display. The memories remain but the jobs are gone.
My money says it’s the distributor. The store has nothing to say about it. I know. I’ve tried to get items in stores that I want, and department managers have tried – but if the distributor says “no,” for whatever reason, it ain’t gonna happen.
Also – there were idiots in the supply chain in WWII (the e.g., he uses as ‘knowing what their doing’). There was an incident where the entire drinkable water supply was contaminated with gasoline, and that’s all the soldiers had to drink for the operation. Lots more. Where does he think the SNAFU acronym comes from?
So, no, his thesis isn’t correct, people are people, and aren’t any stupider. It’s the crucible that shapes their characters that’s no longer functional. There’s still plenty of potential. It’s just being squandered more now, perhaps partly because those who haven’t one have become in charge. And that kind of problem doesn’t fix itself.
…and what RonG said.
…and also what The Phantom said
…and probably others whose comments I haven’t read yet.
Phantom is just shilling for capital against labour.
This guy could have made his point in less than 1 minute instead of 13.
I don’t disagree with him, but the chances I’ll subscribe to his content are zero.
I would say it’s more likely they spent MORE on ‘organic free-range recyclable gluten-free’ paper cups, than styrofoam bowls that work.